San Fernando Valley Fair

I’ve been attending this fair off and on since it was originally called «The San Fernando Valley Fair». It used to be held at Devonshire Downs in Northridge, CA, (next to CSUN), back in the late 80’s. Anyone remember? I even had a photography vendor’s booth there one year. For several years, at the various fair locations, I entered photographs as a professional exhibitor, and did quite well winning ribbons for my work. It was a lot of fun!
When it was held at Devonshire Downs, it was a really cool fair with great music, food, art and crafts, and a wide array of interesting vendors. Then, suddenly CSUN needed the property to build on, and the fair lost it’s somewhat «permanent home». It has struggled since then to find a place to «set up camp» yearly with a warm welcome extended.
The promoters of the fair tried for several years to have it take place at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. That would have been an awesome location for the valley. But as I understood it, the neighboring community apparently fought against it thinking due to the alcohol being served and large crowds, it would become a nuisance to their neighborhood. Hey people– it’s a 4-​day once a year event! Get over it! The 1-​night loud parties on your block are probably more annoying!
They’ve held the fair over the years at the Burbank Equestrian Center, Hansen Dam in Lakeview Terrace, and the last event was held at the Saugus Speedway in 2008. I attended all of the past fairs at the various locations, but it just was never the same. I attended the 2008 Valley Fair in Saugus. It was quite disappointing. It lent itself to a low turnout and was small and very commercial. I felt the promoters could have done a better job with the sound stage area for the bands to perform, the overall ambiance, and for promoting the event in general.
I went to the 2008 event in Saugus strictly for the music venue and to hopefully dance. There was no room to dance, unless you wanted to compete with the uncovered electrical cords all over the place, and the funny looks you got from the conservative folks that attended. How could you not want to dance to the «Bella Donna» band as the lead singer sang a beautiful tribute to Fleetwood Mac!!! And to the well known «Which One’s Pink» (Pink Floyd tribute band) !!! Wake up people!
I left very disappointed.
Well…it’s 2010… and «The Valley Fair «is returning to the San Fernando Valley June 17^th thru June 20^th at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, with a decent line up for music. They have scheduled a Beatles tribute band to play on Thursday night and a Journey tribute on Friday night, as well as other bands and performers on Saturday and Sunday. I’m planning on attending. I hope they have the dance area ready for me! I hope this fair brings back the fond memories I have of the 80’s at Devonshire Downs. And I hope the surrounding neighbors and valley community support the fair, by attending and giving it a chance.
Oh, and I’m sure some of the Woodland Hills resident snobs will drive their Mercedes to check it out, when they could have just saved gas, gone green, walked around the block to attend, drank a few cold beers and stumbled home!